Georgia film on screen
Friday, April 10 — Happy Friday, everyone! We’re a couple of weeks out from the start of the Atlanta Film Festival, but I wanted to get a head start on celebrating some of the amazing Georgia-made films that will be coming through this year. Next week, you’ll see the first round of interviews that I’ve done in preparation for the festival (and there will be a ton more in your future). But for now, check out this guide to Georgia Film at the Atlanta Film Festival.
Without further ado … Action!
🍿 Speaking of ATLFF, they just added some new films to their lineup, including “IDIOTS,” filmed in Georgia by director Macon Blair, and Boots Riley’s new film “I Love Boosters.” Check out the full schedule here.
🍎 Speaking of film festivals in general, Emory University’s free Aperture Student Film Festival will take place at the Plaza Theatre on April 14.
🎬 The third annual Slate Awards, presented by On Set ATL, will take place on April 12. You can read my conversation from last year with On Set ATL’s founders here.
👒 A new film called “The Gardener,” written and directed by Duluth resident Dabney Day, will premiere at the Tara Theatre on April 14.
🏟️ Georgia Entertainment and AMA Atlanta are kicking off the Atlanta Film Festival with an event called SEAT – or Sports, Entertainment, Art and Tourism – at Assembly Studios on April 22.
🏆 SCAD students won two major awards at this year’s College Television Awards.
🇫🇷 The lineup for the 2026 Cannes Film Festival has been announced, including a new musical from Ira Sachs and Pedro Almodóvar’s new film “Bitter Christmas.”
🇸🇦 While Paramount had previously said that three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds were backing its $81 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, those agreements have officially been signed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, and Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Co.
🤝 SAG-AFTRA will head back into union contract negotiations with studios and streamers on April 27, months ahead of the previous date in June. This announcement comes after the WGA reached a tentative four-year deal earlier this month. The DGA is still expected to begin talks on May 11.
💼 Sony Pictures Entertainment started layoffs earlier this week, with a few hundred jobs expected to be cut from its 12,000+ staff across the globe.
This week’s newsletter includes a conversation with the founders of a new film festival in McDonough, as well as with the cast and crew of “You, Me & Tuscany” about the importance of theatrical rom-coms. We’ve got two movie reviews – a video game adaptation called “Exit 8” and a new “Hamlet” adaptation starring Riz Ahmed. Plus, what’s playing at theaters this week, a new edition of Spotlight, and some reading and listening recommendations for your lunch break.
Thanks for reading!
Sammie
🎉 The all-volunteer Inman Park Festival returns for its 54th year! Enjoy free live music, art, parade, kids’ activities, and food in historic Inman Park. Saturday & Sunday, April 25-26. Tour of Homes runs Friday-Sunday. Tour tickets on sale now! SPONSOR MESSAGE
McDonough Storytellers Film Festival celebrates good stories, no matter the medium
📽️ Samantha LaCroix and David Jongebreur only met less than a year ago, but their dreams are already coming true. The McDonough Storytellers Film Festival, cofounded by LaCroix and Jongebreur, is coming to McDonough June 5-6.
The two-day festival will take place across multiple locations in McDonough’s historic town square, including Story on the Square, the town bookstore owned by Jongebreur and his wife, Stephanie Gordon. That’s how Jongebreur and LaCroix first met – LaCroix was looking for a location for a film she was making, and Story on the Square was the perfect fit.
Jongebreur and LaCroix quickly began planning out what would become the McDonough Storytellers Film Festival, celebrating not just the best in film, but the best in novels, music, and other art forms.
📖 Check out my conversation with them about the festival here.
Spring Plant Sale Blooms at Love is Love Farm
SPONSORED BY LOVE IS LOVE COOPERATIVE FARM
🌼 Love is Love Cooperative Farm will host its annual Spring Plant Sale tomorrow in Mansfield, GA, offering a lively day of plants, food, and family-friendly activities.
Guests can shop certified organic seedlings, enjoy local food vendors, and take part in workshops, farm tours, and hands-on experiences. Highlights include a guided tour of the 70-acre farm and expert gardening advice. The event celebrates community, sustainable agriculture, and the joy of growing, welcoming both seasoned gardeners and newcomers to connect, learn, and enjoy spring outdoors.
➞ Learn more here.
‘You, Me & Tuscany’ cast and crew on the importance of theatrical rom-coms
🍷 It feels like every other day, a new romantic comedy releases on some streaming service. When it’s a good one, I’m always left with one lingering thought: wouldn’t it have been more fun to watch that on a big screen?
“You, Me & Tuscany” – written by Ryan Engle, directed by Kat Coiro, and produced by Atlanta’s own Will Packer – is a silly, heartfelt romantic comedy made with the theatrical experience in mind.
The film, which releases today, follows Anna (Halle Bailey), a culinary school dropout looking for a new lease on life. She jets off to Tuscany on a whim to stay in the empty villa of Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), the handsome Italian man that she almost had a one-night stand with. When Matteo’s family mistakes Anna for their son’s fiancée, she has to figure out how to tell them the truth while dealing with her budding feelings for Matteo’s cousin, Michael (Regé-Jean Page).
💍 Ahead of the film’s release, I spoke with Packer, Coiro, Bailey, and Page about the making of the film and how important it was to make something that could be experienced in a theatrical setting. Check out our conversation here.
Japanese horror film ‘Exit 8’ is too beholden to its video game structure
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🚇 “Exit 8” opens with a scenario we’re all probably a little familiar with – a little mindless scrolling to pass the time on a long commute.
The opening of the horror film, directed by Genki Kawamura and based on the 2023 video game, represents “Exit 8” at its most interesting. We begin firmly rooted in the point of view of our main character (Kazunari Ninomiya). He’s absorbed in his phone, only pausing his scrolling when another passenger starts berating a woman because of her crying baby. We think our protagonist (we will come to know him as The Lost Man) might do something, but no – he just goes back to his phone.
Throughout this opening, “Exit 8” primes you for a film about how self-centered we’ve become in the age of technology – and, in a lot of ways, it is about that. But, when The Lost Man’s ex-girlfriend calls to tell him she’s pregnant, and then he very quickly gets lost in a seemingly never-ending hallway loop filled with hidden horrors, the film also becomes a story about a man dealing with the possibility of impending fatherhood. What side of that equation our protagonist comes down on – particularly when combined with the fact that Japan is in the middle of a population crisis – feels a little heavy-handed. But the real issue with “Exit 8” is that it’s too beholden to its video game roots to be truly exciting; it is more interested in the setup than its protagonist’s arc, and therefore completely whiffs on any emotional payoff.
🎮 Read my full review here.
New ‘Hamlet’ adaptation features great performances, some adaptation struggles
WEEKLY FILM REVIEW
🎭 “Hamlet” might be one of the most adapted properties of all time. When taking stock of those adaptations, the story mostly stays the same, but the focus usually changes.
It all comes down to preference – maybe you’re like Laurence Olivier, concentrating mostly on the psychology of the character and fascinated by his Oedipus complex – so much so that he cast 28-year-old Eileen Herlie (29 during filming) to play his mother (He was 40). Or you’re more like Kenneth Branagh, interested in delivering a four-hour, word-for-word epic. Or, you fancy yourself like Michael Almereyda, updating the story to take place in modern-day New York City, replacing kings with CEOs.
Aneil Karia’s recent adaptation takes place in modern-day London within a wealthy South Asian community, starring Riz Ahmed as the titular prince – the heir to a construction company rather than a country. Updating Shakespeare to modern times but keeping the language as is can always be a little tricky, and this version has its cinematic ups and downs – the incorporation of South Asian culture works rather well, although certain filmic choices lack the emotional gut punch the story contains. But Ahmed is mesmerizing, handling the dichotomy of the language and the setting with ease and making Shakespeare feel effortlessly modern.
👑 Read my full review here.
At the Movies!
If you’re looking for a movie to see in theaters this week, here’s what you’ve got to look forward to!
Movies releasing this weekend:
🇩🇪 “Miroirs No. 3” (pictured)
🍷 “You, Me, & Tuscany”
🚇 “Exit 8”
👑 “Hamlet”
🚀 “Whitest Kids U’Know’s MARS”
🧜♀️ “ChaO”
🌋 “Pompeii: Below the Clouds”
👹 “Faces of Death”
Special Events:
👃 “Dead Lover” in Stink-O-Vision @ The Plaza (Friday-Saturday)
🐍 “Chime + Serpent’s Path” in 4K @ The Plaza (Friday-Thursday)
🦄 “Legend” (Theatrical Cut) @ The Plaza (Saturday-Wednesday)
🏍️ “Harold and Maude” in 35mm @ The Plaza (Saturday-Thursday)
🎙️ “Blue Velvet” in 4K with Club Silencio Live @ The Plaza (Saturday)
🎰 “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” 50th Anniversary @ The Tara (Saturday-Tuesday)
🐄 WABE Cinema Social: “Food, Inc.” @ The Tara (Saturday)
👍 “Good Time” @ Landmark Midtown Art Cinema (Sunday)
🎉 The all-volunteer Inman Park Festival returns for its 54th year! Enjoy free live music, art, parade, kids’ activities, and food in historic Inman Park. Saturday & Sunday, April 25-26. Tour of Homes runs Friday-Sunday. Tour tickets on sale now! SPONSOR MESSAGE
Spotlight: Victoria Pedretti in ‘Forbidden Fruits’
🍒 The first time I saw Victoria Pedretti was in Mike Flanagan’s “The Haunting of Hill House.” She played Nell, the troubled youngest sister of the Crane family who never quite recovers from the haunting she experienced as a child.
My immediate reaction was, “Who is that?” Pedretti felt fully formed and confident as a performer in a way that’s rare. She’s shown up in plenty of things since then (mostly horror or horror-adjacent, with the rare appearance in a Kacey Musgraves music video), but, in my opinion, she hasn’t really been given her due. Her face is too interesting, her frown too perfect, her emotive nature too heartbreaking for her to not be on my screen at all times!
In “Forbidden Fruits,” Meredith Alloway’s smart, if sometimes a bit flat comedy-horror film that released earlier this year, Pedretti gives the standout performance in a way that felt like discovering her all over again. The aching vulnerability is still there, but this time she gets to offset that with her comic chops. Pedretti plays Cherry, the most overtly sexy baby-coded of the titular Fruits, a posse of hot, popular girls that rules the Texas mall where the film takes place.
With Cherry, Pedretti iterates on the oversexualized teen girl trope, exerting her power over the slew of male food court bozos she’s constantly hooking up with (“Cookie man, put me down!” she shrieks, pinned against a changing room wall by a cookie shop employee. He immediately relents.). Where Cherry loses that power is in her relationship with leader of the pack Apple (Lili Reinhart), whom she stares at with equal parts lust, jealousy, and love. As mean or vapid as Cherry can sometimes be, that’s where Pedretti’s ability to pull on your heartstrings comes into play – every expression always betrays a bit of insecurity, making you feel for the girl where you otherwise might not.
Pedretti matches the energy you want from a film like “Forbidden Fruits,” operating at a pitch that the rest of the film doesn’t always hit. She brings a winking, perky energy to Cherry’s stereotype, somehow letting us know she’s in on the joke without compromising on the aspects of the character that make her a bit sad.
Lights, Camera, Action!
🌟 As a person who loves movie stars, this is always an episode of “The Big Picture” podcast that I look forward to. Earlier this week, Sean and Amanda ranked the top 35 movie stars under the age of 35 – take a listen here to see if you agree!
🪕 Pivoting to music for a second – I think Craig Jenkins is one of the best music critics out there working today, and I really enjoyed this piece for Vulture that focuses on how country artists that once pandered almost exclusively to the right are changing course as the genre gets more popular than ever. I’ll say this – praise be to Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, and The Chicks.
🐪 I’ve gotten really into the podcast “Unspooled” lately, and I got there through listening to a recent episode of “You’re Wrong About.” On this episode, “Unspooled” hosts Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson join Sarah Marshall to talk about the infamous 1987 Elaine May flop “Ishtar.” Is it really the worst movie ever made? Listen to find out.
🖊️ Today’s Scene was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.
